if mitt romney loses, paul ryan is an early front-runner for republicans. if barack obama wins, joe biden is telling people yes, i might be getting up there in age, but i feel great. i might run. >> let's talk about joe biden for a minute. remember last time they said you don't want to come off as condescending to sarah palin or even sexist. does the same thing aplay here? obviously not the sexist part, but condescending to someone younger than him for a paul ryan who seems to be new? does that challenge exist in this particular debate? >> reporter: well, i think that challenge exists in every debate. certainly it was different to have, you know, you're having a man debating a woman. that's a different calculation. but you don't want to be smug in any debate. it was interesting, you know, a lot of people after the first presidential debate thought the president was disinterested. the president was detached. i was interviewing suburban women yesterday. one of them said, you know, mitt romney won on points, but i thought he was smug. i thought he was disrespe